mental health blog day!
A few ideas for today;
1. Hopelessness is its own disease, let's be proactive, as people in recovery, to see possibilities. In grave circumstances we need to let a little light in. People who are incarcerated, unemployed, overly fearful need the light that we can spare to move forward
. 2. Build the fuel for success through enjoyable challenges. For some it will be taking the risk to go out to a cafe and ordering a slice of cake, for others it will be baking a cake, still others will work in a bakery or buy one at the store for a friend. Another may create a painting of a cake for someone who can no longer eat it! Recovery takes creativity and rising to the occasion.
3. Make a connection during mental health month. Find someone you can talk to about your recovery. Our friendships can grow from polite comments to activity partners to people who we can speak to when things are going good or bad. A support group like AA or Al-Anon, NA, OA can mean more than just following steps. It can mean people who care and are also interested in growing in a healthy direction. Find your people.
Here is a link to a hopeful article on how the brain recovers:
Below is the link to the Channel 2 newspiece featuring our current director Andrea Schmook and our future director John Fugett telling their recovery stories. Enjoy!
http://www.ktuu.com/videogallery/69873352/News/Mind-over-Meds-Part-4#pl-62893695
mental health blog day May 16th
If you like to blog, here's a date you don't want to miss. You can copy the badge above and pledge to write about mental health on that day. I will be.
Here is a link to more information about blogging for mental health on May 16th!
http://www.yourmindyourbody.org/mental-health-month-blog-day/
Dave’s Killer Bread – food for thought
Here's a video that shows a man who dealt with depression, addiction, jail time and thanks to a supportive family and psychiatric help was able to get back on track. Some of us have supportive families. Some of us have medications. There are other routes back to wholeness as well. Find them!
May is Mental Health Month!
Join us in our art project!
The Faces of Mental Health
Take one of these:
And create something like this:
Contact Joan C. at The WIC for your face. We will hang all faces for a month, take photos, then you can take them home
DON'T sit home and watch this!"]
Many of us have gone through periods where we could not work due to physical or mental health disability. Some of these periods may be longer than others but none are forever. Sometimes I think psychiatrists should write prescriptions for work, especially when the medications just aren't doing any good. The odds for success in working despite having a mental health issue are very good. It may sound silly to some people to work when they could be getting benefits and watching television but there is so much more to life.
Perhaps you think you'll be the one out of a hundred thousand that absolutely can't work even a few hours a week. You've tried before. You want to be safe, not be bothered. Unfortunately, you aren't very safe. You probably don't live in the best neighborhood or eat really healthy food, you might hope that people will take care of you out of the goodness of their hearts. People usually are drawn to other people who can help them as well. Friendship is a give and take arrangement which thrives when both people are mature, responsible and growing.
Now is the time to GET UNSTUCK! Come talk to us at Innovations Industries and The Wellness Innovations Center. We believe that community involvement, self support and inter-dependency between Peers is necessary for real recovery. Medications may be part of your treatment but your well-being is increased only by how much you will put an effort into getting better, growing up and giving back. We at The Wellness Center encourage you to come in and help run the place, cook, clean up, organize an event or we can help you find a paying job in the community. We are a step on the road out of the mental health treatment system, out of assisted living homes and into your own life.
Come over for lunch Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday around 11:45 am. Be willing to help out and we'll see if we can help you too.
Spring fever- using it to move forward
I have heard it said that the way I would know I was really depressed is if I still felt bad when spring came. Well, spring is here and I have some unresolved issues weighting me down but I also have some energy to deal with them. I got on the bicycle yesterday. I went to a support group the day before and running the day before that. Why? Because I want to get better. That's what recovery is all about. I figure most every free moment of my life should be spent making my world and the world in general a better place. That doesn't mean I run myself ragged but I do some reading, some relaxing, some exercise, some work and some chores everyday.
I encourage those of you who want to try something different to come join us at The Wellness Innovations Center for lunch this spring. We eat at 11:45 am Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. We have many amazing opportunities for people with mental health issues to reboot their recovery. We have a labor pool for part time or occasional work. We have lots of chores you could help us with on a volunteer basis if you are more comfortable with that. We can also help link you with The Department of Vocational Rehab and jobs in the community. We love new faces as they help us grow. I believe the brain is not unlike the earth. Sometimes it needs to rest and regroup and sometimes it needs to bloom. Don't let your life get stuck in winter. Come bloom with us!
New York Times Magazine focuses on Mental Health
The New York Times Magazine has a must read issue this week. As yesterday was Earth Day, a no buy day for many people, there were lots of issues of The Sunday paper left at New Sagaya. You can also read it online at http://www.nytimes.com/pages/magazine/index.html
I found the article on Prozac well researched and compassionate. It was not an anti-medication rant which alienates people who benefit from drug therapy but a consideration of the many different outcomes from the use of antidepressants. Let's face it, some people find anti depressants have saved their lives. Others have found that they lose their efficacy after a few years. Still others have had no gains using medications. Some people even get worse, others believe they are morally wrong and serve only to enrich the myth of happiness and the drug industry. When it comes down to it we have only our individual knowledge of ourselves and the opinions of others to make our decisions. There are no levels in the body we can check. It appears that some people have normal levels of seretonin even when depressed but it may be a physical issue in using the neurotransmitter. I liked the information about people being electrically stimulated to get rid of depression. I'm not sure I'm at that point but I'm glad the option is available to some.
I was not so keen on the article about anxiety. This was much more anecdotal and told me more about the author and his brother than about anxiety itself. It was not as funny as pieces written by David Sedaris addressing his anxiety and there was nothing I learned from it besides you can make money writing about yourself with very little insight. Sure anxiety has to do with fear of death and makes us act weird. Sure it may be genetically wired or influenced by upbringing but don't most people already know that? What does the writer learn from his anxiety? Where does it take him? How does he deal with it? There were no losses or gains examined. In fact it appeared to trivialize a condition in a Woody Allenish way. Typically depression gets taken seriously as people connect it to suicide. Many depressed people deal with unemployment, underemployment, loss of relationships, anger issues. We take it seriously. Unfortunately anxiety is seen as a joke until one gets diagnosed with PTSD. It is known that people with anxiety also deal with similar coping issues and often their anxiety is co-occuring with depression. I'm not saying that everyone with depression or anxiety should be on disability or take medications but I believe that many physical and social illnesses can be traced back to underlying mental health issues which have escaped diagnosis. It's too bad they missed the boat on this one. Maybe I should consider writing more about it. How about you?
Emotional flexibility – yoga for the mind
I read somewhere that being physically flexible helps not just our muscles and bones but our blood vessels. I thought maybe going to a yoga class might help my mind as well. Unfortunately, I found that was not the case for me. Perhaps I went to the wrong classes but it appeared to me that lots of people had their coffee to go and were chatting about their stressful lives then used the hour to try and force themselves to relax into ever more difficult positions and situations.
I find that I also try to use stop gap measures so that I don't have to give up any of my money, power and prestige in life. I don't want to take a break because I need to finish my work. I feel bad if I skip a day of exercise. I realize other people might deal with life in the opposite way. Perhaps they are afraid of taking any risks because they fear a total breakdown while I'm afraid of taking any break because I might collapse.
What is called for is some emotional flexibility. For example, it takes me some time to emotionally wake up in the morning. I can stretch my body and my mind. I used to get up before the alarm clock. Now as I get older I use the alarm clock to give me 15 minutes to stretch and find something to look forward to in my day. This is a warm up. When I get to work I used to fret about not being able to jump right into the most difficult tasks. Now I give myself a few minutes to warm up by adding something to this website. Stretching the mind and my emotional outlook is worth the time it takes to avoid injuring myself or others.
Protection from the mental health cold
Like many people in Alaska, I had assumed it was spring but was surprised when I found it was 20 degrees outside this morning. How silly to have expectations for the weather, especially in Alaska. Yet I do the same thing for my mental health. I assume if I follow all the rules, take my medications, attend my support groups, write, get exercise, eat well then all my emotions and thoughts will fall into order like little soldiers. This is not necessarily so. Sometimes I 've thought having mental health issues is unfair but that is just another delusion on my part. Life is not necesarily fair, life is chaotic and my response to it is what counts. I have to notice the weather and choose my clothing. I choose my activities based on the weather. I don't go cross country skiing in the rain but I don't use the rain as an excuse to do nothing. I might paint or go for a swim. It all comes down to being flexible with myself and others. Just for today, I will look for a way through my life that is thoughtful and creative instead of ranting about the world as it is.